One in five Ontario students has suffered brain injury

Hamilton Spectator

TORONTO A new study shows one in five middle and high school students in Ontario report they have suffered at least one head injury that knocked them unconscious for more than five minutes or required overnight hospitalization.

The study's authors say that suggests traumatic head injuries are far more common among young people than previous statistics indicated, likely because many incidents go unreported.

The paper, published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, looks at the prevalence of such injuries among the province's public school students in Grades 7 through 12, as well as the circumstances surrounding them.

Researchers at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital

found that roughly 5 per cent of students reported having a traumatic brain injury in the past year — and more than half those cases (56 per cent) were sports-related.

There was also a link with alcohol and cannabis, with frequent users showing "significantly higher odds" of a head injury in the past year than their teetotalling peers.

Boys were more likely than girls to report having experienced a head injury in the past year — 6.9 per cent compared with 4.3 per cent, according to the study.